Western Esotericism

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Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed

Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Western Esotericism A Guide for the Perplexed Book PDF

Author : Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 225 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2013-02-14
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781441188977

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Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Wouter J. Hanegraaff Pdf

Western esotericism has been a pervasive presence in Western culture from late antiquity to the present day, but until recently it was largely ignored by scholars and surrounded by misconceptions and prejudice. This accessible guide provides readers with the basic knowledge and tools that will allow them to find their way in this bewildering but fascinating field. What is it that unites phenomena as diverse as ancient gnosticism and hermetism, the "occult sciences" of astrology, alchemy, and magic, rosicrucianism, as well as Christian theosophy, occultism, spiritualism, and the contemporary New Age spiritualities? What can the study of them teach us about our common cultural and intellectual heritage, and what is it that makes them relevant to contemporary concerns? How do we distinguish reliable historical knowledge from legends and fictions about esoteric traditions? These and many other questions are answered clearly and succinctly, so that the reader can find his way into the labyrinth of Western esotericism and out of it again.

Western Esotericism

Nicholas Goodricke-Clarke
Western Esotericism Book PDF

Author : Nicholas Goodricke-Clarke
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 180 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2017-07-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781351537162

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Western Esotericism by Nicholas Goodricke-Clarke Pdf

Esotericism is the search for an absolute but hidden knowledge accessed through mystical vision, the mediation of higher beings, or personal experience. In Western cultural history esoteric approaches to religion have often been in conflict with - and suffered at the hands of - more established forms of religious belief and practice. 'Western Esotericism' presents a very broad and engaging history of the people and ideas which have shaped occult history from antiquity to today. Throughout the history of esotericism the dynamic of concealment and revelation has characterized the search for secret knowledge. Pursued both publically and privately, esotericism has come to influence more mainstream religious practice and culture and has significantly shaped our understanding of modernity. Today, esotericism continues to be practised by a range of both established and new religious movements. 'Western Esotericism' presents the essential guide to one of the most fascinating, provocative, and sustained of religious traditions.

Western Esotericism

Antoine Faivre
Western Esotericism Book PDF

Author : Antoine Faivre
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 139 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2010-10-06
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781438433790

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Western Esotericism by Antoine Faivre Pdf

Widely received in France, this brief, comprehensive introduction to Western esotericism by the founder of the field is at last available in English. A historical and pedagogical guide, the book is written primarily for students and novices. In clear, precise language, author Antoine Faivre provides an overview of Western esoteric currents since late antiquity. The bulk of the book is laid out chronologically, from ancient and medieval sources (Alexandrian hermetism, gnosticism, neoplatonism), through the Renaissance up to the present time. Its coverage includes spiritual alchemy, Jewish and Christian Kabbalah, Christian theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Illuminism, 'mystical' Free-Masonry, the Occultist current, Theosophical and Anthroposophical Societies, the Traditionalist School, and 'esotericism' in contemporary initiatic societies and in New Religious Movements. Faivre explores how these currents are connected, and refers to where they appear in art and literature. The book concludes with an annotated bibliography, which makes it an essential resource for beginners and scholars alike.

Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation

Henrik Bogdan
Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation Book PDF

Author : Henrik Bogdan
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780791480106

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Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation by Henrik Bogdan Pdf

For more than three hundred years the practice of Masonic rituals of initiation has been part of Western culture, spreading far beyond the boundaries of traditional Freemasonry. Henrik Bogdan explores the historical development of these rituals and their relationship with Western esotericism. Beginning with the Craft degrees of Freemasonry—the blueprints, as it were, of all later Masonic rituals of initiation—Bogdan examines the development of the Masonic High Degrees, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn—the most influential of all nineteenth-century occultist initiatory societies—and Gerald Gardner's Witchcraft movement of the 1950s, one of the first large-scale Western esoteric New Religions Movements.

Access to Western Esotericism

Antoine Faivre
Access to Western Esotericism Book PDF

Author : Antoine Faivre
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 1994-12-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781438402239

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Access to Western Esotericism by Antoine Faivre Pdf

This is the first systematic treatment of esotericism to appear in English. Here is also a historical survey, beginning with the Alexandrean Period, of the various esoteric currents such as Christian Kabbalah, Theosophy, Alchemy, Rosicrucianism, and Hermeticism. Common characteristics of these currents are the notion of universal interdependency and the experience of spiritual transformation. The author establishes a rigorous methodology; provides clarifying definitions of such key terms as "gnosis," "theosophy," "occultism," and "Hermeticism;" and offers analysis of contemporary esotericism based on three distinct pathways. The second half of the book presents a series of studies on several important figures, works, and movements in Western esotericism—studies devoted to some of the most characteristic and illuminating aspects that this form of thought has taken, such as theosophical speculations on androgyny, rosicrucian literature, and Masonic symbolism. The book is completed by a rich and selective Bibliography conceived as a means of orientation and a tool for research.

Constructing Tradition

Andreas Kilcher
Constructing Tradition Book PDF

Author : Andreas Kilcher
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 490 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2010-10-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004216372

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Constructing Tradition by Andreas Kilcher Pdf

This volume of conference proceedings investigates the various ways and patterns with which esoteric writings and groups establish their own tradition. This involves concepts of origin and memory, ways of legitimising esoteric tradition as well as techniques and practices of knowledge transmission in esotericism.

Essays on Women in Western Esotericism

Amy Hale
Essays on Women in Western Esotericism Book PDF

Author : Amy Hale
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 401 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2022-01-21
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783030768898

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Essays on Women in Western Esotericism by Amy Hale Pdf

This book is the first collection to feature histories of women in Western Esotericism while also highlighting women’s scholarship. In addition to providing a critical examination of important and under researched figures in the history of Western Esotericism, these fifteen essays also contribute to current debates in the study of esotericism about the very nature of the field itself. The chapters are divided into four thematic sections that address current topics in the study of esotericism: race and othering, femininity, power and leadership and embodiment. This collection not only adds important voices to the story of Western Esotericism, it hopes to change the way the story is told.

The Western Esoteric Traditions

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
The Western Esoteric Traditions Book PDF

Author : Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2008-10-14
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0199717567

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The Western Esoteric Traditions by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke Pdf

Western esotericism has now emerged as an academic study in its own right, combining spirituality with an empirical observation of the natural world while also relating the humanity to the universe through a harmonious celestial order. This introduction to the Western esoteric traditions offers a concise overview of their historical development. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke explores these traditions, from their roots in Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism, and Gnosticism in the early Christian era up to their reverberations in today's scientific paradigms. While the study of Western esotericism is usually confined to the history of ideas, Goodrick-Clarke examines the phenomenon much more broadly. He demonstrates that, far from being a strictly intellectual movement, the spread of esotericism owes a great deal to geopolitics and globalization. In Hellenistic culture, for example, the empire of Alexander the Great, which stretched across Egypt and Western Asia to provinces in India, facilitated a mixing of Eastern and Western cultures. As the Greeks absorbed ideas from Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, and Persia, they gave rise to the first esoteric movements. From the late sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, post-Reformation spirituality found expression in theosophy, Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry. Similarly, in the modern era, dissatisfaction with the hegemony of science in Western culture and a lack of faith in traditional Christianity led thinkers like Madame Blavatsky to look East for spiritual inspiration. Goodrick-Clarke further examines Modern esoteric thought in the light of new scientific and medical paradigms along with the analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung. This book traces the complete history of these movements and is the definitive account of Western esotericism.

Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism

Henrik Bogdan,Martin P. Starr
Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism Book PDF

Author : Henrik Bogdan,Martin P. Starr
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 421 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2012-09-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199863099

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Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism by Henrik Bogdan,Martin P. Starr Pdf

Henrik Bogdan and Martin P. Starr offer the first comprehensive examination of one of the twentieth century's most distinctive occult iconoclasts, Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), one of the most influential thinkers in contemporary western esotericism.

Magic and Mysticism

Arthur Versluis
Magic and Mysticism Book PDF

Author : Arthur Versluis
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 0742558363

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Magic and Mysticism by Arthur Versluis Pdf

Provides overview, from antiquity onwards, on various Western religious esoteric movements. This book includes topics such as: alchemy, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy and more.

Western Esotericism in Scandinavia

Anonim
Western Esotericism in Scandinavia Book PDF

Author : Anonim
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 716 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2016-06-21
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004325968

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Western Esotericism in Scandinavia by Anonim Pdf

Western Esotericism in Scandinavia is a detailed encyclopaedic work covering all major esoteric currents in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

Hidden Intercourse

Wouter J. Hanegraaff,Jeffrey Kripal
Hidden Intercourse Book PDF

Author : Wouter J. Hanegraaff,Jeffrey Kripal
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 566 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2008-12-31
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789047443582

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Hidden Intercourse by Wouter J. Hanegraaff,Jeffrey Kripal Pdf

The history of Western esotericism is rich in references to the domains of eros and sexuality, but this connection has never been explored in detail from a critical scholarly perspective. Bringing together an impressive array of top-level specialists, this volume reveals the outlines of a largely unknown history spanning more than twenty centuries.

New Age Religion and Western Culture

Wouter J. Hanegraaff
New Age Religion and Western Culture Book PDF

Author : Wouter J. Hanegraaff
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 598 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2018-09-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004378933

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New Age Religion and Western Culture by Wouter J. Hanegraaff Pdf

Recent years have seen a spectacular rise of the New Age movement and an ever-increasing interest in its beliefs and manifestations. This fascinating work presents the first-ever comprehensive analysis of New Age Religion and its historical backgrounds, thus providing the reader with a means of orientation in the bewildering variety of the movement. Making extensive use of primary sources, the author thematically analyses New Age beliefs from the perspective of the study of religions. While looking at the historical backgrounds of the movement, he convincingly argues that its foundations were laid by so-called western esoteric traditions during the Renaissance. Hanegraaff finally shows how the modern New Age movement emerged from the increasing secularization of those esoteric traditions during the 19th century. This ground-breaking publication is compulsive reading for all those involved or interested in the New Age movement.

Magia Sexualis

Hugh B. Urban
Magia Sexualis Book PDF

Author : Hugh B. Urban
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 349 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2006-10-04
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780520247765

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Magia Sexualis by Hugh B. Urban Pdf

"This book offers a fascinating account of the development of Western sexual magic through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Urban focuses on an extraordinary set of historical figures, and his rich analysis illuminates the sexual—and supernatural—undercurrents that have shaped modernity."—Randall Styers, author of Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World

Restoring Paradise

Arthur Versluis
Restoring Paradise Book PDF

Author : Arthur Versluis
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 204 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2012-02-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 0791484858

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Restoring Paradise by Arthur Versluis Pdf

Focusing on how spiritual initiation takes place in Western esoteric religious, literary, and artistic traditions from antiquity to the present, Restoring Paradise provides an introduction to Western esotericism, including early modern esoteric movements like alchemy, Christian theosophy, and Rosicrucianism. The author argues that European and American literature and art often entail a written transmission of spiritual knowledge in which writing itself works to transmute consciousness, to generate, provoke, or convey spiritual awakening. He focuses on several important figures whose work has not received the attention it deserves, including American writer and Imagist poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) and British painter Cecil Collins, among others. While Arthur Versluis presents a new way of understanding Western esotericism in a contemporary light, above all he has crafted a book about knowing, and about how we come to know, and what "knowing" by way of literature and language actually means.